There can be no doubt that Paul really ranked with the Twelve. He was a "chosen vessel," the "apostle of the Gentiles." Although as one "born out of due time," he himself saw Jesus and from him received the entire gospel by direct revelation. Consequently the other apostles possessed no advantage over him. He himself says, "The gospel which was preached of me was not after man. For I neither received it of man, neither was I taught it, but by the revelation of Jesus Christ" (Gal. 1:11, 12). He "was not a whit behind the very chiefest apostles" (2 Cor. 11:5). And it was through Paul particularly that the revelation of the "mystery" was made complete--"that both Jews and Gentiles should be fellow heirs and of _the_ SAME _body_," and he was commissioned "_to make all men see_" it. The general church was, therefore, made up of various local congregations, which were "set in order" by apostolic authority. The essential nature of this organization is determined by the object for which these congregations were formed, the conditions of membership therein, and the kind of laws by which they were governed. [Sidenote: Nature of its organization] The primary object for which the local church was formed was the establishment and extension of the kingdom of God among men. A secondary object was the encouragement and mutual edification of the believers themselves, which was best obtained by united worship in prayer, exhortation, praise, thanksgiving, and religious instruction. We have already noted the conditions of membership in the local church. None but those who were already members of the body of Christ could properly be recognized as members in a congregation which was designed by Christ to exhibit in local and temporary form the true idea of the church universal. According to this standard of membership, every individual owed allegiance directly to Christ himself as the great head of the church. Christ was the only lawgiver. The relation of the individual to the local church, then, did not in any sense supersede his personal relations to Christ, but simply strengthened and further expressed this higher relationship. In this standard of church-membership is found the secret of the union in one body of all apostolic Christians. The standard was _personal relationship to Christ_, and this relationship could be obtained only by an experience of salvation and humble obedience to the law of Christ. Therefore all the truly saved were members of Christ and members of each other. This standard being the same for all, it led to absolute equality among members. Hence Paul could say, "There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one _in Christ Jesus_" (Gal. 3:28). The law of the church, as already stated, was simply "the law of Christ"; first as delivered orally by specially inspired apostles, and afterwards expressed by them in the Christian Scriptures.